Letter: Why Isolate Russia? We Need an Ally in Fight Against Our Enemies

Seems like the media and some of our national politicians are constantly beating the war drum about Russia. They do not like Vladimir Putin. In the last year we have unloaded a whole bunch of our M1 tanks and ammo near Russian borders. We are practicing war games just outside their new boundary lines.

The national security suits say we must do this because of the activity of Russia in the Crimea and in Ukraine. Remember that those lands for hundreds of years were part of old Russia. The Russians feel a claim on those lands and it would kind of be like losing Florida back to Spain. Would we not try and take that back?

Now I don’t know about you but if there were pre-staged Russian tanks outside El Paso or in Windsor, Ontario, I would be for the United States taking major steps to be ready in case of attack. I would move troops and equipment opposite them and be training hard. This is exactly what the Russians are doing.

I would remind everyone to think about how this all looks from the viewpoint of a common Russian. Russia has been invaded by Western powers and its graveyards are jammed with millions of their dead from those invasions. The French were there about when our country was founded and the Germans were there within living memory. Both countries are members of the EU and are members of NATO.

Russia was our key ally in World War II. During that war, the U.S. lost about 400,000 dead. The Russians lost about 11 million in combat not to mention about 10 million civilian deaths. The Russians did not start that fight. Our current ally, the Germans, did.

The Russians should be our friend in the fight against radical Islam and we will need them if China keeps arming and goes on a Pacific quest for total dominance under their communist leaders.

This does not mean we should not be watchful about any government that can attack and devastate us but we should not be so provocative. We should also remember the great sacrifice of the Russian people to defeat the Axis powers and their help to secure our freedom. Every now and then we should remember to say thank you and mean it.